Sky.
Dawn tinting the far-off horizon of the East Sea.
Red flying in from the north.
Jang Hyundeok gleaming gold on its back, and Park Gwangrim with a startled face.
Ha ha, yeah, it’s me. You punks.
No time to wave at the two—freefall continues.
In an instant, the storm.
A drumbeat brushes the ear for the briefest moment.
“Bahahaha—”
Seocheonseul’s dance beyond the clouds.
A dokebi living in a timescale different from humans.
A surge of vortices.
Wind like a fist against the skin.
Ground in a heartbeat.
Hands rising like a forest—beautiful, witching hands of a goddess.
[rrrrrrrrumble!]
Those giant hands converge to block me.
I could defend with magic, but I can’t waste mana like that right now.
Besides, I’ve got someone by my side to do the blocking.
[crackle-snap!]
The sheer force from a single punch.
[KABOOM!]
Yang Seoho growls, jabbing a finger at me.
“Using me—!!”
Can’t hear you, can’t hear you.
Before she finishes speaking, I drop underground.
Darkness.
A hole punched in the floor of Cure Medical Care.
The ruin waiting below the long vertical shaft.
The ruin in Sokcho had a shaft like this too.
Same structure, anyway.
Darkness stretching on.
And the noise of the surface fading away.
Dark.
Quiet.
Ominous.
Deep,
deep,
deep,
deep,
deep,
deep,
deep.
The ruin.
Silence clicks on at some point.
Darkness.
Ah, I drilled deep.
Darkness.
An altar shows itself all at once.
Magic circles glowing a sullen green.
No—bioluminescent moss is what’s glowing.
I keep falling.
The floor.
With the Golden Hairpin, I—
[System: The Gate of the Abyss opens.]
“I will, together with Cure Medical Care, open the lid of the bottomless pit that day. From that pitch-black Abyss, beasts will pour forth like swarms of starving locusts.”
Come to think of it, it turned out exactly the way I said.
A tremor, rrrr-krak—or perhaps rrrr-krash.
Offerings of the Feast falling from sky to earth like stars.
The Key of the Bottomless Pit opened a black hole to the Abyss.
A screech, kieeeek—or maybe kyarrrrk.
Beasts punching through the ground—through flesh—or pouring from the once-empty air. Monsters. Monsters in the shape of hands.
Yang Seoho mutters low as she watches.
“Those guys are supposed to handle the aftermath?”
Flowers bloom without number. Flowers glowing fluorescent. Flowers so beautiful that if you ever took them in with your eyes once, you’d never forget them as long as you live—colors and forms gaudy beyond belief.
Beautiful hands ringed with those flowers.
The hands of a mother who loves all things.
Hundreds of perfectly identical, perfectly beautiful hands loosely repeating the same motion. An endless sword-dance of hands. Hundreds of hands taking different poses, moving with exquisite grace.
Two hands pressed together in prayer. Two hands twisted and splayed like a flower. Two hands lifting their heads like a snake. Two hands opening like an enraged tiger. Ten fingers spear out of that mouth like ivory. Fingers curved like teeth. Nails sharp as knives. Nails hard as shields.
“Hm.”
How stifling.
It’s easier to just kill what you see.
They send me on errands like this?
Yang Seoho eases an old book into her coat, careful not to crumble it.
[rrrrrumble!]
The gate to the Abyss is open, and an immense flood of mana is spewing from within.
[System: You are gazing into the Abyss.]
[System: The things that dwell in the Abyss reveal themselves.]
[System: The things that dwell in the Abyss look upon you.]
[System: The Abyss’s madness, grace, and blessing settle into your mind.]
[System: You will no longer be human, no longer Kim Sinhwa.]
A horrible love surges like a tide from every direction.
An overwhelming quantity of knowledge bores into my veins like lightning.
Mana so absurdly dense it displaces the air as it crowds in.
Palms turned to the sky, to remove fear and worry and anxiety from all beloved things.
Palms turned to the earth, to grant the hopes and wishes of all beloved things.
Palms spreading like the compassionate touch of a tathagata, embracing everything.
And the colossal, surreal majesty ringed by those hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of palms.
Vast, primordial love.
But I have the power to protect myself from all of that—to remain one human being, and remain Kim Sinhwa.
Frankly, a busted trait the game’s structure shouldn’t allow.
[crackle! crackle-snap! CRACKLE!!]
Sparks arc not just from my temples but from my whole body.
[System: “Madness of the Abyss” activates. One already mad cannot go mad again, and one stained by the Abyss cannot be stained by it again.]
“Yeah, that’s the stuff!”
Ignoring the drivel in the message window, I move my mana and unfurl the powers I have.
Clothes imbued with the power of the [Ten Thousand Gold King].
A ring imbued with the power of [Living Flame].
A shard imbued with the power of [He Who Comes From the Dark].
A mask imbued with the power of the [King in Yellow].
An avatar stone imbued with the power of the [Predator in the Mountains].
And that’s not all.
There’s something I picked up just now.
[kigigigigik—]
Deep-sea gold that holds the power of the [Master of Murky Water], and the [Mirror of Wisdom] that holds the power of [Source of Life].
I loose the powers of beings far too exalted in rank to every side—and raise my left hand.
“No matter how I look at it, this is kind of embarrassing.”
This hand is steeped in an uncontrollable power of death.
I burned most of it pounding Yang Seoho earlier, but that power is already tangled up with the mana-stone that sprang from my flesh and blood.
I recall the form of the mana that lingered in my body—and, far away, I tug on something like the thing rampaging up on the surface.
“Come here. Time to go home.”
Are they doing fine up top?
No big problems yet, but just in case, I left something to Yang Seoho.
For a moment my awareness lifts above this ruin—to the distant surface.
“Ha ha ha ha! So many targets! A full moon high in the sky! My power! My gun! Peacemaker! Let’s go, Rocinante! Power calls the moon, and taking the moon’s power, I transform! Overwhelming violence will call forth peace! I am exhilarated! Mighty power! I make justice! My quarry! Tremble!”
Kid the Gunman, the bounty hunter, raves and froths in delirium.
“Awoooooo!!”
Transformed into a werewolf, Kid tucks his steed at his side and tears toward Gijang County.
“Wow. It’s really happening.”
He stuffs a Nirvana into his dry mouth—Park Gwangrim shakes his head and answers.
“I figured he’d be fine.”
Park Gwangrim, anyway, is a broker long active in Paju. His job is connecting fixers with cases.
Just like Kid wanted, there’s plenty of prey here.
“Gwangrim, keep the promise.”
Inukage, a yakuza, a cultist, and a high-ranking ninja of a ninja clan, whispers to Park Gwangrim.
When did he climb up onto Red’s back?
Cold sweat runs down his spine, but Park Gwangrim forces calm and smiles.
“Of course. We even paid the advance.”
The ninjas of [Changwol Society] tracked Kim Sinhwa on Akiyama’s promise of a vast sum.
Now that Akiyama can’t pay, their job is over—but Park Gwangrim has procured a new client for them.
“Good.”
[shff—shff—shff—]
Ninjas surface on all sides before anyone notices.
Cultists have a higher tolerance for madness than ordinary people.
Some do fall into delirium, of course, but they have ninja secret elixirs that work better than Nirvana.
And one more.
“Kim Sinhwa!! I came to kill you!”
Yong-su, survivor of Insu Village, has come here for revenge.
“Krrroaaaar!”
Driving a massive octopus, and a shark, and a crab, Yong-su charges for Gijang County. Are all of these Kim Sinhwa’s underlings!? These horrible monsters! I’ll drown them all!
“The sea is close! [Master of Murky Water]! To your descendant—strength! Grant me overwhelming strength!”
[rrrrrumble!]
The sea starts to heave in answer to his plea.
Even Park Gwangrim can intuit the raw shape of those three’s desires, nation and race be damned.
But as for that person—still no reading.
“I’m counting on you!”
“Hm.”
With a vague answer no one can parse, the Conqueror begins to move.
[SKRAKKKKK!!]
If it’s short distance, those two legs can run faster than a car—and the Conqueror breaks into a sprint—
“Out of the way.”
[saaashhh!]
He cleaves down those who block him in a single stroke and goes on.
“Woof!”
And a giant black hound runs after the Conqueror.
“Yahoo! That’s stylish!”
“Stylish?”
Isn’t it terrifying?
Thinking that, Park Gwangrim holds his breath, just waiting for this nightmare to end.
But at that moment—his [Dowsing] thrashes to life.
“U-urrrggh!?”
Something awful—dangerous—terrifying is hurtling toward two people.
I trigger magic I learned through the Sealing Scripture.
[Demon-Sealing Array]
[Spell Boost: Multicast]
[Spell Boost: Range Up]
[charrarararak!!]
A swarm of magical chains woven from Hanzi and Sanskrit shoots into the far dark.
The target is—very far, but right now, time and space don’t mean much to me.
I draw the [Blade of Flesh] with my right hand and swing.
This too came from an Abyssal being. A magic tool steeped in the power of [Great Source] reveals its true worth.
[Unique function of L-grade weapon “Blade of Flesh,” “Power to Cut Barriers,” activates.
// Power to Cut Barriers: Slices space.]
[shraaack!]
And with it, something enormous is hauled in.
The nearer shadow of [Source of Life].
A bit farther—the shadow of [Source of Pollution] crouched under Buyeo.
And farther still—over there...
[chararara—]
Chains of the Demon-Sealing Array link across time and space.
“Yeah, got you.”
[crackle!!]
Purification, annihilation, banishment, expulsion, return, erasure, exclusion, ouster, disposal, exorcism.
And confinement, sealing, isolation, suppression, control, defense, compulsion, restraint, binding.
Mana and will in many forms ride the array’s chains and fly for the enemy.
[System: Trait “Feast’s Offering” activates. Abyssal beings send you their will.]
[“Abyssal Being – Great Source” activates /null ability “Surging ”]
[chararara—]
Mana of dreadful might backflows toward me.
“Ghk—”
Sticky blood pours from my mouth and eyes.
“Damn it, I can’t exert influence one-way.”
As expected, I don’t have the output to bind and ship off three Abyssal beings at once on my own.
[bzzzzzzzt!!]
[“Abyssal Being – Source of Pollution” activates /null ability “ ’s Touch”]
Right, that one was linked too.
A shadow of death closes from every side.
Oh, hell.
I hurriedly message Yang Seoho.
“Hey! Call Jang Hyundeok!”
Her reply:
“Hey, watch your tone.”
I’m going to lose it.
Only after Kim Sinhwa messages again—in polite speech—does Yang Seoho tell Jang Hyundeok what he has to do.
“Uh... You want me to use the magic in this book?”
“Yeah.”
“Kkiiiii—”
Red, with Yang Seoho standing on its head, keens in fear.
“Owl, you won’t die. Stay still.”
Strictly, if you stay still, you won’t die.
“Kkiiii...”
“I—I can’t do this. I can’t even read Hanzi to begin with—”
“Make it work.”
“No, I mean... Huh? Granny, who are you?”
Jang Hyundeok stares off in a random direction and says something strange.
“Granny?”
Yang Seoho frowns—Is this kid broken in the head too?—but then—
[chararararak—]
The book unfolds by itself and leaps into the air.
“Ah, so that’s what it was? Now I get it. Ah—really? Ah. Yes, I can lend that to you. Come in. There’s one more person inside, so I don’t know how °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° much space there is—Child, that’s enough. Go over there and wait.”
At some point, Jang Hyundeok speaks to Yang Seoho in a completely different voice. The manner of an elder full of mysterious wisdom.
“Mm... Understood.”
Seeing what’s happening, Yang Seoho bows her head to the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] possessing Jang Hyundeok’s body, then sets her foot on Red’s head—
If she kicks, it’ll shatter.
She drops lightly instead, steps on air, and returns to the ruin’s mouth where Kim Sinhwa dove.
“H-hyundeok?”
“That child is sleeping now.”
The [Guardian of Bongam Hall], through Jang Hyundeok’s mouth, scans the world around and laughs low.
“In life I never offered a byeolsin-gut this grand, and dead I endure a riot like this.”
A drum sounds from somewhere.
A ritual knife, bells, and a mirror, woven from mana released at Jang Hyundeok’s fingertips.
“Huuuuuu—”
A sound like long breathing, or a chant—the voice that calls the gods.
A rite to soothe an angered god and send a lost power back to its rightful place.
Chains of mana fly from the owl soaring above the great storm, in every direction.
[chararararak—]
The [Guardian of Bongam Hall] composes a [Demon-Sealing Array].
